Wednesday, January 4, 2023

The Republican House of Representatives


The House of Representatives - before they can swear in the new members - must select a Speaker of the House. Republicans hold a narrow majority of the seats. Under normal circumstances we would expect the Republicans to elect a person from their own group. Representative Kevin McCarthy - who apparently has always wanted to be Speaker of the House - can't get enough Republicans to vote for him (no Democrat will vote for him). They've had, over the last two days, 7 different votes and he loses each time. He needs 218 votes, but up to 20 Republicans will not vote for him.

McCarthy wants to be Speaker so bad he's been accepting all kinds of demands from the 20 who won't vote for him. It makes him seem like a shallow, empty vessel. He'll do anything to be the Speaker. It's disturbing to see naked ambition right out in the open. 

On top of it, McCarthy, and most of the people who don't want him, are Trump people and voted against the certification of the 2020 election. In my mind, they're extreme right wing. I listened to many of the nominating speeches and their view of the world is so different from mine, it's disheartening. Especially when I think about the world view of all the people who voted for them. 

It's likely this will work out for McCarthy - I say that only because these things usually do. Even if it doesn't and someone else becomes Speaker, it still looks like the extreme ideologues have shown that they can exert power over shallow, ambitious men. 

To be clear, this is my view of the extreme idealogues: they think Biden and Obama are the cause of every 'bad' thing in this country, they think federal government is too big and they want to destroy it by saying no and no and no, they believe there's a 'deep state swamp' that is run by elite liberals who are all Jewish, and they think white Christianity is being attacked, among other things. Their goals are to legislate their religious beliefs and deny rights to people who they don't like. They believe in freedom for all as long as the 'people' are white, Christian, heterosexual. and male. 

And then, there are the regular conservatives who think entitlements are handouts for lazy people, they believe in trickle down economics, they believe in everybody looking out for themselves, and they care more about their money than people. 

So, this is not good. I fear for the America I believe in.

From Dan Balz at The Washington Post

            https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/01/04/house-republicans-dysfunction-points-more-chaos-ahead/?outputType=comment


No comments: